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Better schools equal better scores: Editorial

Jordan Johnson, left, and Justin Walker, right, sing along with Yoshio Toyama and the Dixie Saints at O. Perry Walker High School in Algiers, Aug. 2. Thanks to a partnership with the Tipitina's Foundation, several band members and Tipitina's Foundation musicians, the O. Perry Walker Chosen Ones Brass Band will travel to Japan to perform.
(Photo by NOLA.com/The Times-Picayune archive)

After Katrina and the levee breaches, New Orleans' failing school system was broken up. The Orleans Parish School Board kept the small number of schools that were thriving, and the state-run Recovery School District took over the rest.

Now, seven years into the transformation, charter high schools in the Recovery School District posted a better average ACT score for the Class of 2012 than the high schools the Orleans Parish School Board runs directly. Students at the RSD charters had an average composite score of 17.9 compared with 17.3 for the School Board's direct-run schools, according to a new report by the Cowen Institute.

The RSD charter school scores went up significantly from the Class of 2011's composite average of 15.8 points, according to the report. The average composite score for schools run by OPSB went down slightly.

Given that the ACT is a 36-point test, the 2.1 point increase year-to-year by RSD charters is significant. Their performance also is notable because they have risen from what were the city's most-troubled schools before Katrina. Since RSD took over the vast majority of city schools in late 2005, it has been working to find charter operators to take on more of them. High schools have been the most difficult piece of that puzzle.

These results reinforce the success of charter schools generally in New Orleans post-Katrina. And they give credence to the RSD's approach of switching more direct-run high schools to charters. The difference in academic growth between direct-run and charter schools is dramatic in both the RSD and OPSB systems.

The best ACT scores by far among the city's public schools are found at Benjamin Franklin and Lusher, both of which are selective-admission charter high schools under OPSB. Their average composite scores are 27.1 and 24.1 respectively. But O. Perry Walker and Sci Academy, which are open-enrollment RSD charters, had the next-highest composite scores at 19.4 and 19.2.

O. Perry Walker showed the most improvement class to class, increasing by 1.6 points, according to the Cowen study. Interestingly, the school's scores have gone up since the school made the college admissions test mandatory. That will happen at all schools in 2013, when the ACT will be factored into schools' state performance scores. The expectation is that scores will go down as more students take the exam, but Walker's experience shows that doesn't have to be the case.

Sci Academy is another success story. The school opened in August 2008 in eastern New Orleans with a class of 80 ninth-graders. By May 2009, the school was No. 1 in English and No. 2 in math in the Recovery School District. In June 2012, more than 95 percent of the school's first graduating class were accepted to four-year colleges, according to Sci Academy's website.

These schools are an example of what every school in the city can achieve with the right leadership.

The ACT results weren't all positive, though, according to the Cowen study. Many schools had scores that "lag considerably behind the state and national averages." And only 38 percent of all students scored high enough on the college admissions test to qualify for a TOPS award from the state. Again, the charter schools as a group performed better than the schools directly run by OPSB or RSD. But the RSD's direct-run schools had the worst results, with only 11.3 percent of students qualifying for TOPS at either a four-year or two-year school.

There also was a huge gap between the worst composite score of 13.5 at ReNEW Accelerated High School-City Park and Ben Franklin's 27.1. Still, academic performance across public schools in New Orleans is significantly better than it was when the OPSB ran all schools pre-Katrina.

In test results reported in July, the Recovery School District had an increased percentage of students scoring good or excellent in all four categories of the state's end-of-course exams. Scores for students who attend schools under the Orleans Parish School Board saw improved scores in three categories.

The differences between low-performing schools and high-performing schools remained stark, however. For example, no students scored excellent or good in Algebra I at John McDonogh High School. By contrast, 75 percent at Dr. Martin Luther King Charter School scored good or excellent on the Algebra I exam.

Addressing those disparities remains an urgent challenge. But state Superintendent John White is right to see the end-of-course scores as "tangible proof that the state's education reforms are working.'' The improving ACT scores for RSD charters are proof as well.

There still is a great deal of work to be done to make all of the city's high schools high-performing -- which must be our goal. Every student should leave high school well prepared for college or for work. That isn't the case yet in New Orleans. But the city's schools are much closer to it than they were just a few years ago.